New Sport England Funding when to apply

Here you'll find live information about Sport England's new funding opportunities, including the key dates you need to know. Since they published their strategy, Towards an Active Nation, they've been doing a lot of detailed work to develop their new funding programmes.

Below explains when funding will become available and when you can download detailed information about how you can apply for funding or other advice and help.

Sport England have organised it by their investment funds, so you know where to look in the strategy for more information.

Volunteering

Volunteering has traditionally been encouraged because it is such a great enabler for people to play sport. This is absolutely crucial – grassroots sport depends on the thousands of people who give their time to help others – but we also want to focus on what volunteers get out of volunteering in sport, and help ensure they have a meaningful and high-quality experience.

£3mvolunteering fund launching in the New Year

In December 2016, we will:

Announce full details of a new £3 million volunteering fund to diversify the range of people who volunteer, and as a first step, support people from lower socio-economic groups to volunteer in sport. There are 5.6 million sports volunteers giving their time at least once a month in England – the most popular setting for volunteering. But our research shows that people from lower socio-economic groups are under-represented – just 31 per cent volunteers compared to 51 per cent from higher socio-economic groups.

We want to work with a mix of organisations in this fund, some of which will be new to us.

Local delivery

Where people live and work plays a big part in the choices they make about the sport and physical activity they do.

In our strategy, we announced that we would be funding 10 places to develop and implement local strategies for physical activity and sport. These will be pilots to learn lessons from and will particularly focus on addressing inactivity and working with under-represented groups.

In December 2016, we will:

Invite expressions of interest to become one of our local delivery pilot projects. If you’re interested in helping the types of people who aren’t normally active by putting their needs first, then this is the fund for you.

We want to support pilot projects in both urban and rural areas and in different parts of England. We’re expecting expressions of interest to be from local consortia. You won't be asked to make a funding bid at this stage. Instead we’ll want to get some basic details about the area you’re considering.

In January and February 2017, we’ll hold a number of working sessions to help interested partners develop their ideas. That means by March 2017, we’ll be able to identify the three or four pilots which will go forward immediately and up to 10 which will require further development during 2017. Full details - https://www.sportengland.org/our-work/local-delivery/

Tackling inactivity

Helping people who are inactive is one of our major priorities. Over the next four years, we're dedicating at least 25 per cent of our total resources to tackling inactivity.

£10minactivity fund launching in December

In December 2016, we will:

Publish an investment guide on inactivity, describing the type of projects we’re looking to support, the people we want to benefit and the outcomes we’re seeking to achieve

Open the first phase of our Inactivity Fund, which will focus on projects that help older adults (55+) to get active. We will be making up to £10 million of National Lottery funding available. We’re targeting older adults first because our insight tells us this age group is much more likely to be inactive: 42 per cent of people aged 55+ are inactive compared to 29 per cent of the population as a whole.

Based on the work we've already done on inactivity, we anticipate bids ranging from £250,000 to £500,000, but if you want to work on a smaller or larger scale, please do get in touch to discuss your ideas – we’re open to a range of options.

If you want to bid, you will need to submit your expressions of interest by noon on 13 February 2017. We plan to make the first set of awards in June 2017.

Facilities

The places where people play sport have a really big impact on a person's experience and likelihood they will come back regularly. That’s why we’re continuing to invest in all types of facilities, especially multi-sport for our major strategic investments.

£7.5mof funding for facilities launching in December

In December 2016, we will:

Launch the first phase of our new Community Asset Fund. If you’re an organisation looking to take over sports facilities, a sports club that wants to expand or you have a great idea for a project that’s clearly needed in the local community, then this could be the fund for you. £7.5 million will be available for single and multi-sport community facilities in this phase.

Based on similar projects we’ve already supported, we expect to make awards of between £5,000 and £150,000. You’ll be able to submit your bids from the beginning of January 2017. We plan to make the first awards from April 2017 onwards.

It might be that your facilities project is already right for one of our open funding programmes, like our Strategic Facilities Fund. Find out more here.

In January 2017, we will:

Publish our wider facilities investment guide, giving partners more information on the type of projects we’re looking to support, the people we want to benefit and the outcomes we’re seeking to achieve.

Supporting sport’s core market – major events

The UK has become known for hosting world class sporting events, with England playing an important role in building that reputation. We want to ensure that the grassroots of sport really feel the benefit of those major events which are held in England, so we will be investing in using events to engage more people in sport and physical activity.In December 2016, we will:

Launch a £2 million fund to help engage a much broader range of people in and around major sporting events.

Coming soon

Investment guides

To help those who might want to work with us as we roll out our strategy, we will be publishing a series of detailed investment guides. They will provide more information on the types of projects we’re looking to support, the insight we have available, the people we want to benefit and the outcomes we’re seeking to achieve.

These will be published on our website and shared directly with our partners.

The guides we’re going to publish are:

Supporting sport’s core market – how you can apply for funding for projects that ensure those with a strong affinity for sport are valued as customers (December 2016)

Children and young people – how we can work with you to create more opportunities for children to improve skills and have fun being active outside of school time (February 2017)

Mass markets – how you can access funding for projects that can get huge numbers of people active (March 2017)

Local delivery – how we want to support areas to create opportunities to get active that really work for the local community (March 2017)